Police ID tower worker who fell 50 feet to death - Harness not attached to safety line when he fell

EAST WINDSOR - The worker who fell 50 feet to his death Thursday inside a water tower under construction was identified yesterday as a resident of Jackson Township, police said.

Gary Meineke, 56, was pronounced dead at the scene. No foul play is suspected, but Meineke's full-body harness was not attached to a safety line when he fell, police said.

"Wearing a harness and being on a rope are two different things," said Lt. Todd Hoagland, a police spokesman. "I don't believe he was clipped in."

Investigators from OSHA are involved in the probe of the accident, but the agency's regional office was not available for comment yesterday.

Meineke, who worked for CBI Services of New Castle, Del., was with about 15 other workers at the construction site on Millstone Road Thursday.

A new, 80-foot water tower is being built there for the East Windsor Municipal Utilities Authority, police said. Around 10:30 a.m., Meineke was on a scaffold inside a tubular section of the structure when he fell, impacting a solid floor in the tower's base.

Emergency workers were able to use ladders to climb 30 feet from ground level up to where Meineke was lying and recover his body about an hour after the accident, officials said.